Mack Hansen may swap to fullback for Fiji Test

Résumé détaillé

Hansen, Andrew Porter and Ryan Baird played their first Test in almost a year last week, and being relatively light on matches at international level, may well start again against…

Dan Sheehan and Sean Jansen’s unavailability will see Andy Farrell shuffle his team to face Fiji on Saturday (kick-off 8.10pm) although without radically dipping into his squad.

The Ireland head coach is mindful this is the first of just eight competitive games between now and the World Cup, leaving little time to further hone the style of play Ireland showed in last Friday’s win over Argentina. The belief from the camp is also that Mack Hansen, Robert Baloucoune and Josh van der Flier will all be fit for this weekend’s return to the Aviva Stadium.

With no specialist number eights called into the squad to fill the void created by Jansen, who joins Caelan Doris and Jack Conan on the sidelines, Nick Timoney could well be afforded his opportunity to showcase his versatility, shifting from openside.

Hansen, Andrew Porter and Ryan Baird played their first Test in almost a year last week, and being relatively light on matches at international level, may well start again against Fiji.

Hansen’s playmaking and heads-up ability were on show against Argentina when he adorned a well-executed strike play with the instinctive floated pass which led to the first of Hugo Keenan’s hat-trick.

That try, and last week’s performance overall, showed Farrell wants to give his players launch plays and structure while also allowing them freedom to play what they see. Hansen will flourish in this approach.

Keenan is on 49 caps and, given Farrell’s fondness for celebrating landmarks, his 50th cap is perhaps more likely to be against South Africa on Saturday week rather than this time out. If that’s the case, Hansen could well be named at fullback, having scored a hat-trick against Australia last November from 15.

Baloucoune is another key component of the Irish attack and remains relatively unexposed to Test rugby, so if he has trained fully this week then the temptation may be to start him again, perhaps alongside another speedster, Tommy O’Brien.

It would be the partnership’s third outing, having…

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